Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation

[purpleivan]

Going all the way... or, don't give up your day job.

Jeb had made the decision to call in a fuel drop at their current location, a the mouth of the river Amazin, before making their way up it. Given the amount of fuel and the unknown length of the river it seemed the smart thing to do.

But that wasn't what Val wanted to hear, she'd heard tales of the great tidal surf on the river and was keen to try out the board she had stashed away for just this kind of situation.

"Come on Jeb, we've got plenty of fuel, almost 200 units."

"Maybe but if we run out on that river there's no way they're going to be able to make a fuel drop from orbit into it"

"Come oooon, beck... beck... beck... be".

"Is that supposed to be a chicken Val".

"Maybe".

"Impressions aren't your thing are they".

Eventually after some goading, bad farm animal impressions and Val saying she'd get out and push if they ran out of fuel, Jeb decided they should take the boat up river.

Val steered into the wide mouth of the river, but after a few minutes it narrowed, with high cliffs on either side of it. She ketp an eye out for that surf, but so far no sign of it.

About halfway up the river the cliffs on the right side subsided, while those on the left grew much larger, as if making up for the loss.

Bob's got a distress flare ready, just in case they run out of juice on the way to the lake. A nice purple one that he's been dying to try out since he say it was onboard.

Two thirds of the way up river and there's just over half the fuel left, so it looks like Jeb was worries were unfounded, but he's still concerned about having enough to meet up with SMIRF.

That is one sharp top cliff. Bob suggests it looks like someone cut through a huge chocolate cake, topped with peppermint icing.

Jeb's still worrying about the fuel, if they run out here, they're really stuck. Perhaps one day someone would come along and find the remains of the abandonded boat, the spooky remains of a failed mission.

But he needn't have worried, after weaving up the river for some time, the view of cliff walls ahead finally give wa.

That gap has to be the lake.

Indeed they are and with about 50 units of fuel left for the rendezvous with a SMIRF.

Val's very disappointed that there's been no sign of the tidal wave along the river she was told of.

"So who told you that there would be waves here?"

"Charles Kerman, you know, that guy who test the new parachute designs from the top of the VAB".

"Oooh, Chuck off Charley... didn't think he surfed".

Val takes the boat a little way into the lake, then cuts the engines. They don't know exactly where the fuel will land, but no point in mooring up to the shore, as that's the least likely place for it to be dropped on.

Here's the SMIRF target in all it's glory. It's flight path will take it roughly along the length of it, from top left to bottom right. The plan is for it to dropp in the middle of it somewhere.

Bill asks Bob if he'd like to give the lake a name.

"Let me think, maybe Lake, ooooh what's that" he exclaims, distracted by some peaks in the distance that come into view as Val swings the boat to a halt.

"Lake... Ooooh... What's... That..." Bill slowly writes in the boat's log, making sure to get it right.

It looks like a fine day to drop a fuel tank from orbit into a lake.

Talking of which, he is said tank... ok, there's some gubbins as well as the fuel tanks, but they're just a means to an end.

The end being that nice red cross... hopefully.

As usual I am a little long, to account for instability on re-entry, with a braking burn planned to get closer to the boat, once most of the decent is done.

In she comes, right on target for a landing in Lake Oooh What's That.

Looks fairly close to where the Coastal Cruiser is, but it's a big lake, so this could be some distance away.

A nice sunset chute deplyment, as SMIRF coasts down to the lake.

10.6km away from the boat is their fuel, wit 50 units on board that shouldn't be a problem.

Some nighttime refuelling.

In the morning the crew take the boat towards the mountains that give the lake it's name.

Val brings the boat in to the shore and Bob and Bill head out towards the closest, but also the shortest of the two mountains.

Bob guns the motors and the rover heads up the base of the mountain, which is conveniently placed right next to the lake.

1km up and 21km from SMIRF, out on the lake.

There's some rugged cliffs ahead, but the going has been fairly easy so far.

Bob stops the rover for a recharge and to grab a bite to eat. He could have sworn he brought a sandwich with him,but can't find it anywhere.

Up over 2.5km now and Bob has the feeling that the squishy feeling under his backside, is his sandwich.

He's particularly disappointed as he was really proud of this one, with sliced hotdogs, 3 types of cheese a thick layer of mayo and half a raddish (he's trying out a healthier diet).

A couple of minutes later and their at the summit. At 3km it's one of the lowest peaks that Bob's beaten, but it does have a fine view from the top.

In particular Bob like the view of the mountain that he wishes he climbed, but even he would have to admit that this rover probably isn't going to make it to the summit of that thing. Not with slopes that look like they're about 70-80 degrees.

So with the only way to go being down, that's where Bob heads. It's a fun and fairly smooth ride down from the summit, with no really steep drops to spoil you day.

The rover leaps from the edge of a ridge and goes airborne. Bill loses his lunch and Bob might have as well, except that he sat on it.

FInally the pair make it back to the boat.

Now to head to the galley for sandwich Mk 2.

[NBDesigns]

Wonderful work! Do you have a link or info on your pc stats? How did you get ks3p to work so well? 

Edited April 25, 2019 by NBDesigns
Additional information

[purpleivan]

2 hours ago, NBDesigns said:

Wonderful work! Do you have a link or info on your pc stats? How did you get ks3p to work so well? 

My PC is nothing special, in fact I want to build a better one in the near future.

CPU i5-3570K

GPU 670GTX

RAM 16GB

I don't think KS3P made much of a hit on performance when I installed it. Not a noticable enough one anyway.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

5 hours ago, purpleivan said:

My PC is nothing special, in fact I want to build a better one in the near future.

CPU i5-3570K

GPU 670GTX

RAM 16GB

I don't think KS3P made much of a hit on performance when I installed it. Not a noticable enough one anyway.

It's mostly down to CPU clock anyway, GPU matters very little

[purpleivan]

Double or quits... or, Bob and Bill make a wager.

With the mountain climb done, it was time to depart Lake Oooh What's That and head back to sea. It's a fine place for a visit and is probably worth a return visit someday, but there's a coastal cruise to get on with.

The boat thundered down stream in the bright sunshine.

The River Amazin, isn't that long, but it's quite dramatic looking. Gradually the distance between the two banks grew as the Coastal Cruiser got closer to the sea.

At last they reached the mouth of the river, swung right and headed West once more.

With the boat about halfway through the fuel, the mountains of Lake Oooh What's That came into view once more. The peak that Bob scaled isn't quite visible from sea level, but its taller neighbour is.

As the sun sank into the Western sky, the soft holling hills became harsher and more moor like.

With the sun about to set, Val grabbed some binoculars (and Jeb grabbed the wheel) to look ahead for a good spot for their overnight stop. with over 600 units of fuel left, there will be plenty of boating to do tomorrow before another SMIRF visit.

Val decides on a small sand bank in the middle of a narrow passage, between the mainland and a small island. On go the lights and the karaoke machine... Bill's in the mood for a some thrash metal crooning.

Bob checks out the map for to see where they are (the top area of sandy looking water) and decides on a name for the large island they've parked next to.

Bunny Island.

A little after sun up Val once again takes the controls and starts by quickly spinning the boat around, to point the right way for their departure.

Unfortunately this results in a hot cup of coffee in Bob's lap. His suit protected him from the heat, but it was the last of his stash of "Punch of the Kraken" super strong blend, so this morning is going to be a drowsy one.

As they motor past some rough terrain Bob suggests that it be called "Pothole Alley" as it's in the same state as the road he takes to work.

So... are we feeling lucky, place your bets on whether there's a shortcut through this mishmash of islands and sand banks. If not, then most of the remaing fuel is going to be used driving around that big island, left of center of the pic below.

Bill says no, but Bob is feeling optimistic and has a little wager with him.

Well the truth is around that bend, will there be shallow but boat-able water, or instead an annoyingly small, but impassable sand bank.

Stay tuned to find out... we'll have the answer right after the break.

Welcome back.

So Bob won the bet he had with Bill, as there's a narrow and very shallow passage through to what Bob's named the Sea of Smells.

Why the Sea of Smells... well as per the bet, Bill's now locked in his cabin until they leave the sea, with only refried beans, tuna mayo and pickled eggs to eat.

He's hoping for a quick journey.

Well soon they're going to have to make a stop, they're donw to 134 units of fuel and they'll need some to go meet the SMIRF.

Val put the boat into shore with 57 units left. Now for a little beach handball... don't know how that's gonna work with just three players, but they'll figure something out.

Edited April 25, 2019 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Keep watching the skies... or, our buddies in orbit.

With near empty tanks the Coastal Cruiser wasn't going much further through the Sea of Smells, so the last of the SMIRFS in an inclined orbit was despatched for the surface.

It was set to land a little off the coast of the boat's location.

Down it came, finally making a splashdown about 12km from the boat. It comes in pretty fast, with the drogue chutes being released at about 3500m.

Once in the water, the Coastal Cruiser headed out to sea to rendezvous with it. With the hook up done, Bob went out to inspect this latest member of the fleet of supply vehicles. It's been a while since he left the rover, so he takes the opportunity to give it a good stretch.

So long SMIRF and thanks for the fuel.

The refill took place in the late afternoon, so it wasn't long before the light began to dim.

Yep... going to have to put in soon.

With the boat safely moored, Bob takes to the roof of the rover in his full EVA suit. He's not worn it for a long time and wanted to make sure it still fits, as life on the boat has made for a growing waistline.

He's hopeful of scaling a mountain soon that requires the suit, he recently heard rumours of one of his pals at the KSC making a rover climb to the top of Keverest and would have liked to have been there for that.

With the morning sun comes another day of sailing the Sea of Smells.

Val's still at the wheel, with Jeb riding shotgun and while he'd prefer to be piloting, it does give him time to look at the scenery.

Unfortuantely the scenery is a bit monotonous on the shores of this sea though.

Jen suggests that craters like this make the shores of the Sea of Smells look like a green version of the Mun... but with more water.

They encounter a large "almost lake" close to the point of turning from a Northerly to a Westerly heading. It's going to be quite a detour, but they need to go in and take a look at it.

Once inside they head towards the North shore of the almost lake. It takes a few minutes until they can clearly sea the North Shore, before swinging around and heading for the exit.

They burst out onto the Sea of Smells and start heading North once more.

It's sundown, but the boat is low on fuel anyway, so they head towards the North shore of a bay at the North end of the sea.

As they approach the shore that will be their parking place for the night, they notice a point of light travelling fast across the sky... it's the MIRF orbital platform. It's some distance North of them as it's in an equatorial orbit, along with it's cousin SMIRF, which will rain fuel down on them tomorrow.

After the spotting of MIRF, Bob and Val take their supper out on deck and watch the skies for other craft in orbit.

[purpleivan]

Always get off the boat... or, have rover, will travel.

With the Incline orbit SMIRF platform empty of refills for the boat, and the one in equatorial orbit not able to reach down to those latitudes, a new platform was launched.

This one was put into a polar orbit, because... well, why not.

A few orbits later a fresh tank of fuel lay waiting for the crew some 25km from their position.

Val and Bob took to the lawn chairs on the deck, to get some fresh air in their lungs. Val appeared to enjoy the experience a little more however.

SMIRFS... the silent prowlers of the sea.

Bob tried not to think about the huge grabby thing that had just attached to the boat, a couple metres from his right ear.

Refilled with fuel (and snacks... SMIRFS always carry snacks), they were one their way once more and Val seems to be really enjoying the outdoors life.

The Coastal Cruiser ploughed westward...

... until the sun set.

After an overnight stop, they continued their westward journey once more. A little while later, as the Mun sank below the horizon, something else crept over it.

It was a pretty impressive range of mountains and Bob endlessly pestered Jeb to stop so he could take the rover up one.

Patience Bob... there is a plan.

That plan being to take this river up to the foot of a large mountain. The river was fairly short, so they had plent of fuel for the detour.

The scenery around here is the most dramatic they've seen since leaving BBQ Bay. The mix of river and giant mountain certainly gives this area a little extra to pull in the tourists.

Val started to bring the boat around the last bend in the river. The plan was to moor the boat at the very end, and have Bob take the rover inland from there.

The source of the river is almost in sight and the banks draw closer together.

It's a tight squeeze at the very end, so Jeb went out on deck to guide Val in. But the banks are just too steep to park the boat at and safely deploy the rover.

So the head a short distance downstrea to a more friendly (if still steep) parking spot.

It's late afternoon when Bob and Val head off, so no time to lose heading uphill. For the first time the going is steep from the moment they leave the boat and journeying up the base of the mountain used uses up precious time.

Time they can ill afford, as the sun is heading down behind the mountains to the West. Soon their source of power is out of sight and they have to camp for the night.

In the morning they have to wait longer than expected before getting moving again, as the steep sided mountains they are climbing are to the North and East, and they block the sun for some time.

With juice in the batteries once more, they attack the slopes and are soon above the snow line.

Much to Bob's annoyance, it's clear that they can't make it to the top in this rover... the last 1km or so of the mountain is far too step, so he settles for a crack at the ridge just up ahead.

But the going is extremely steep, and after several cycles of creeping up, then recharging while sliding back, Bob admits defeat, with this being the highest the pair made it.

Bob guided the rover down to less hazardous terrain, then stopped to admire the view.

On the way back down to the Coastal Cruiser, Bob stops so Val can take a picture of him on top of his mountain climbing machine.

Further down Bob returns the favour... perhaps next time he'll get her in focus instead of the rover.

At last they make it back to the waiting boat. This is by far the steepest beach that they've had to deal with when getting back on to it.

No need to worry though, Bob has done this so many time, he could do it with someone else's eyes shut.

With the rover back on board, Jeb pulls away from the shore and heads downstream, past the peak that just couldn't be beat.

As they head towards the open sea, Bob is sad to sea this mountain go, but he plans to come back here some time, in a more powerful rover.

Out at sea once more, Jeb takes a look a the fuel gauge... 197 units remaining. Well that's enough to take them a little way down the coast, with some remaining for a fuel pick up the following day.

As the sun sets, Jeb brings the boat into shore at a small stretch of sand, sticking out from a headland.

As the rest of the crew get dinner prepared, Bob's busy with pen and paper, designing a bigger, badder rover.

[purpleivan]

Temptation temptation... or, no playtime for Bob.

For the first time fuel was de-orbited for a nightime landing. Nothing too tricky with that, but it was a first for the trip.

In the early morning the Coastal Cruiser headed out to meet their nocturnal traveller. Once parked in front of it, the SMIRF gave a quick burst of rocket thrust to get it clamped on to the boat.

Minutes later they were on the move once more, heading South. When asked to suggest a name for this feature, Bob suggested the "TV Dinner Lakes". Possibly that says more about his diet than anything else.

The smoother, rather bland coastline, became more wrinkly as they progressed South. Here the boat passed between the mainland and a large island.

This was a wrinkle that needed to be checked out, as it's a hidden part of the coastline, so Val guided the boat in.

Hey look, more mountains for Bob to drool over, but Jeb tells him that they don't have the time to be taking the rover out every day. Plus those peaks are quite a way inland.

So Val swung the boat around to point out to sea and away from the mountains.

By the time the tanks were half empty, it was late afternoon, so Val started looking out for a good spot for the overnight stop.

This looks like it fits the bill.

Val brought the boat to rest against a small patch of rock, sticking out of the sea at the entrance to the cove. Then they watched the sun set over the mountains to the West.

The following morning thet took off to the South, but soon the coast turned to the West, as they entered a large bay.

In this neck of the woods there seems to be no avoiding mountains.

That might b because there's a lot of them around.

Bob scribbles some ideas for this feature on some scraps of paper and throws them in his helmet. He reaches in and plucks out... Soggy Pyramid Hill.

Not his best, but he's distracted by all the mountains they've been failing to stop for.

174 units of fuel remaining means that it will soon be time to stop the boat. As a rule of thumb it's being brought in to shore at 50-70 units now, to make the most of the fuel that's delivered, but leaving enough for a SMIRF rendezvous.

Having reached the end of the bay, the Coastal Cruiser changes direction and is now heading ESE at a latitude of 68 degrees. They're now further South than they've been at any time on this journey.

They're far enough South now that daytime aurora are visible, but it's also getting cold, even inside the boat, so Jeb turns up the cabin heaters.

With a little under 60 units of fuel left, the boat comes to rest to wait for fuel. There's an air of excitement onboard as imagery from orbit of their location shows that big changes in the scenery will happen on the next leg.

That white stuff at the top of the image is pack ice... they're just around the corner from the Antarctic coast.

[Fraston]

So thats 1 or 2 legs of boating to ice!

Though they will probably get very sick of it after a while...

Edited April 28, 2019 by Fraston

[purpleivan]

Deep Freeze... or, idiots doing idiot things.

Expectations were high of making it to the Antarctic coast on this leg, so preparations were made for to journey into that cold region of Kerbin. The heating was cranked up to full, thermal undies fished out of equipment lockers and a large batch of hot toddies cooked up in the galley.

On final ingredient, a tankload of fuel was despatched from orbit.

After splashdown, the crew headed out to sea for their latest top up.

After fuelling it didn't take long for the sun to set, so Val pulled the boat in to shore.

After getting a few hot chocolates inside them, the crew headed out to sea and were soon headed dead South.

As they headed deeper into the Southern waters, something slowly emerged from the haze on the distance horizon.

Something white.

Within a few minutes there drew alongside the massive white slab, the edge of a glacier between two green hills.

Val maneuvered the boat in next to the giant slab of ice, so they could take a closer look.

The whole crew got out on deck to check out this, their first encounter with the ice of the Antarctic.

Rather than go explore the glacier, they decided to press on to the main body of it

Strangely the area had trees growing there... must be a particularly hardy variety.

A short time later and another, much larger mass of white came appeared over the horizon. This could only be the edge of the main expanse of the Antarctic ice.

As the ice was an unscaleable wall of near vertical ice, Val moored the boat at its edge, the jumped in the rover with Bob.

The whole crew went out on top of the ice wall to check out the view. Bob stayed inside the rover, while Val ventured outside to snap this picture of Jeb and Bill.

After climbing back in the cab, Val grabbed this picture of her two crewmates from inside. She was glad to get back in the warm and decided to keep inside as much as possible for the rest of the trip along the Antarctic coast.

The crew returned to the Coasal Cruiser and headed out East along the ice wall, this part of which Bob decided to call Checkerboard Cliffs.

One thing that disappointed Bob was that the Antarctic was so flat. he'd imaginged huge ice mountains to scale in the rover.

Inside in the heated cockpit, Val sipped on a nice warm cocoa, watching the ice wall pass by.

Jeb and Bob meanwhile had a similar, though much colder view. A conversation back at the photo op on the ice wall had ended up with them daring each other to sit out on deck as they made their way along the Antarctic coast.

"You feeling cold Bob?"

"No... not a thing... you?"

The crew continued on along the coast... the coast they'd imagined being a bit whiter than it actually was. Occasionally the wall of ice was totally black.

As the sun set, Bill and Jeb were still out on deck.

"Cccc....cccc..cccold yet?"

"Nnn...nnn... nnnope."

With nightfall came the usual stopping of the boat, but as the shoreline was just a huge wall of ice, there wasn't much point in mooring up to it.

At sun up they found that they'd parked overnight next to this small island.

The once more headed to the East, following the line of ice towards its far side.

Bob has a theory that the black stuff in the ice wall is liquorice... when they next stop next to some he says he's going to give it a good lick to find out.

Bill and Jeb have spent the whole night outside. Val's not concerned for their safety, but she does wonder if she's going to need some hot water and a crowbar to get them loose.

As the sun heads towards the horizon, the boat rounds a tongue of ice at the edge of a fairly large bay, that extends some way towards the pole.

As they round the tip of it, they find the far side is lined with the black material. From the viewpoint of the boat it looks like a monolith convention.

The boat is almost out of fuel, so Val cuts the engines and coasts to a halt. They'll have to wait for another SMIRF to drop by before continuing on.

Their latitude is a little over 78 degrees, so less than 12 degrees from the South pole.

15 minutes ago, Fraston said:

So thats 1 or 2 legs of boating to ice!

Though they will probably get very sick of it after a while...

Surprise.

[purpleivan]

 

For the first time the Coastal Cruiser and its crew started a leg from the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. Fuel delivery was again using a SMIRF from polar orbit.

Down there in that gap between the ice is the boat.

At this latitude a lot of the time is spent at sunrise or sunset.

Once the SMIRF had splashed down, about 5km from the boat, it headed off to get fresh fill of fuel.

Jeb and Bill prised themselves out of the seats on the deck and wandered back inside. Hot chocolate (with a bag of marshmallows) were waiting when they got inside. Although they were undamaged by the chilly experience, both crew members swore not to do anything this stupid again.

With the crew all inside once more, the boat headed East along the frozen coastline.

Val made a slight detour to take a look at one of the small green islands near the polar ice cap.

Yup, confirmed... it's green, time to get back to that black and white stuff now.

The island is one of a chain that extends from Cape Cold (passed by on leg 40) just a short distance to the North. The coastal Cruiser travelling East/West went through there a few weeks ago.

The sun's getting pretty low in the sky (even for down here) so the overnight stop isn't far away, but the tanks are almost half full, so plenty more travelling tomorrow.

As dusk falls, the lights on the boat go on and travelling continues for another few minutes.

Eventually the sea is fully black and Val pulls the boat over near this patch of ice, sticking out from the polar cap. Bob decides to call the patch of water on the far side Spoon Head bay.

In the morning they head off again, straight into the dazzling sun.

But they aren't heading along the coast, but instead to the North East, towards the location of a large ice island.

Val's not certain why she's taking them there, she just seems driven to, as if urged on by someone whispering in her ear "go visit that island... go on, you know you want to."

Eventually the inky black edge of the ice island comes into view.

Val pulls the boat in at the Southern tip.

Bob, eager to test his liquirice theory, heads out on deck.

He walks to the edge of the port side, and steps on to the elevon at its rear. he leans forward gives it a sniff. It doesn't smell of much, but in this cold that's not unexpected.

FInally he leans in close to it and sticks out his tongue.

"Thnot thliquirishh."

One Bob had been detached from the ice and brought inside, Val turned the boat to the South East and headed back towards the polar cap.

Once again they headed long the coast... the unending whitish, blackish coast.

When the fuel drops to 55 units, Val cuts the throttle and the boat coasts to a halt, to yet again wait for another fuel delivery.

Just off the tip of this outcrop of ice.

Somthing that occured to me recently was the effect this trip is having on my Imgur collection.

This is what a normal Purpleivan's Imgur looks like.

This is what Purpleivan's Imgur looks like on K.S.C.

[purpleivan]

All change... or, it's gonna have to move.

Well, it the big five O and things are moving around on the leg map. As the current leg is not in the right side of the map, the zoomed in display has moved to the left side. Not important really, but it feels like progress. There's also a big change in the journey, as the direction is finally taking a definite turn to the North.

For things to get moving though, more hardware had to be lobbed up into orbit. The SMIRF gun in polar orbit had run out of bullets, so a fresh one was sent up to provide more to rain down on the journey North.

Once up there a SMIRF was immediately detached, as the orbital path took it over the Coastal Cruiser.

The usual under burn for the re-entry, to roughly balance the extra drag that the SMIRF gets from tiny wobbles on descent.

Here it comes... tiny wobbling away. The boat is just at the tip of that headland of ice.

In the morning the crew got up nice and early and headed off towards their waiting fuel.

Another day, another deck grabbing by a SMIRF.

They headed off once again to the East. They didn't pass much of note, this probably being the most prominent feature. Bob couldn't even be bothered to give it a name (and he loves naming stuff).

At nightfall the ice took on the look of a long wall of concrete.

But in the morning it took on a much more... well... icy appearance.

As the boat sped East something different appeared on the horizon that wasn't flat. That could only be one thing, the land at the Eastern end of the Antarctic ice.

One they arrived at the sandy shore, Val took the boat in, so that Bob could take the rover out for a look around.

Jeb and Val went out on deck to see them off and to make it clear that this needed to be a quick trip. No going off to hunt for mountains to climb.

Bob was happy to be at the wheel once more, even if the terrain was a bit on the boring side.

Very happy!

3km from the boat, the rover came to a stop on top of the highest point on the mounds of snow. There was higher terrain visible further inland, but Jeb had been clear about not going off adventuring, so he turned the rover back to wards the boat.

Jeb was actually surprised how quickly Bob and Bill got back.

 

With everyone back inside, Jeb took to the pilot seat and pulled the boat away from the Antarctic ice. There was almost a quarter of a tank of fuel left, so they knew they'd be able to put some distance betweent themselves and the ice.

Now this makes a nce change... rolling hillsides and grassy islands. Definitely a change for the better.

Yep... evern this tame landscape is a lot better to look at then than the endless white ice.

With the fuel almost gone, Jeb pulls the boat over at a nice sandy shore. They've travelled 15 degrees North from where they left the ice, not a bad start, but a lots more heading in that direction to go.

With the boat having left the Antarctic, the journey does feel like its turned a big corner and is somewhat in the home stretch. By my very rough estimate there's probably about 12 more legs to go.

[KerballingSmasher]

Just 12? I was thinking it was closer to 15... but I may still be thinking about the old boat!

[Fraston]

Man, you should change your location to “The frozen south”

[NBDesigns]

Ya running the bet I think 14 legs to get home

great work 

[purpleivan]

Dead til Dawn... or, hey, mountain, out the way!

It was another night drop (well, dusk if were being entirely honest) from the SMIRF orbital platform. Here it is dropping through the murk.

But the crew had turned off the lights and got an early night, so that fuel will just have to wait till morning.

As if in no time, it was morning and the crew headed out to meet with their friendly fuel giver.

Jeb was at the wheel, eyes glued on the sea ahea...

Oi... Jeb, eye's on the road. What did ya see another seagull?

On the boat sped, heading North into warmer waters. Everyone onboard was happy to be headed away from the cold and rather monotonous Antarctic.

Just over 1/4 of the fuel used and what's that ahead... someone go wake up Bob.

What's that you say... he already knows.

What's that you say... he's giggling excitedly like a small child.

Ok, looks like some mountaineering is on the cards, just have to dodge through these islands first.

Looks like these will pose a bigger challenge than the 195m bump that Bob scaled the last time he was out in the rover.

Right... that's the boat parked. Over to you Bob.

Bob is once again joined by Bill on this leg's episode of "going up a tall thing, then coming back down".

There's the beauty, a fine looking figure of a mountain.

That peak in the center looks like it could be a bit of a challenge though.

Hmmm... things are getting dark and that's not good for the batteries, so better get out of this shadow.

Bob manages to round the corner of the mountain on their right, then turn up the steep slope. It isn't long before the shadow of the mountain brings their progress to a halt. So it's time to camp for the night and break out the barbeque for an evening cookout.

Hooray for morning sunshine... finally something to bring the batteries back to life.

Soon Bob brings the rover up above the snow line. The slopes ease off and they make more rapid progress towards the top.

Just over 4km up now and that's the summit up ahead.

And that would be the boat, 29km away.

The peak is in sight and Bob tears up the slope towards it.

The terrain's pretty smooth and there's plenty of juice in the batteries, so they soon make it to the top... almost 5km ASL.

Bob's feeling pretty happy with the climb and Bill's busy taking snapshots for the album.

"Just let me get one with the rover in it... that'll do".

With Bill's bit of photography at the top done, they head back down of the mountaintop.

I doesn't take long and soon they're looking at the... ahem...dense forest, that they passed through on the way up here from the boat.

Some rapid trundling later the pair make it back to the Coastal Cruiser, ready to continue the trip.

[purpleivan]

Deja vous... or, somthing similar about this whole situation.

The eagle eyed amongst you might notice that the map above look a lot like that for the last post (leg 51a). That's because the events of both were in a single play session, but I split them into two parts to avoid an enormous post. However I then forgot to split up the progress of the boat on the two maps, so both show the full leg length trip.

Ok... back on the boat.

With just under 1000 units of fuel there was plenty of life left in the leg. Jeb once again at the wheel, pulled the Coastal Cruiser out from the shoreline and headed North.

Bob and Bill had had a fun tme climbing that mountain, but it was time to crack on and make some progress along the coast.

But that orbital clock kept on ticking, bringing the sun to the horizon and signalling the progress of the day's progress.

Jeb parked the boat "street style" as he likes to call it.

Bill, keen to play about with his camera, headed out the hatch and clung on to the deck to get a few pictures.

Just below 1/4 of a tank now, but that can get the boat a long way, as with that light a fuel load, the engine is running at 1/3 throttle and get the same speed it does with full throttle and fuel tanks.

Another shot from Bill. He noticed something interesting in the distance, so clambered over the fuselage to this one from the other side of the boat. That guy'll take some risks for his art.

Yep... definitely intesting.

Counting down to Bob in 3, 2, 1...

Bob's seen the mountain and want's to take a crack at it. He knows it would be a first for the trip (two mountains in a single leg) so he prepares himself for the conversation with Jeb.

Bill joins him inside once more and suggests to him that bribery is the way to go... the high sugar content kind.

With his advice to Bob done (and a slice of the bribe consumed as his cut for the suggestion) Bill headed out on deck again to get some more action shots.

The boat can get a lot closer to this mountain than the last, with the access this river gives. It even looks lik there's a small lake at the end of it as a nice spot to park the boat, while Bob hits the slopes.

As the Coastal Cruiser heads up stream Bob can't take his eyes of that thing.

Almost there now, just a few of bends and they get to that lake.

The rock walls close in around the boat, it almost feels like they're having to squeeze their way upstream. Bill suggests that this is the kind of place there are rumours of prehistoric kerbals hanging out and throw rocks at visitors.

Jeb tells him to stop being stupid... everyone knows they're useless at throwing things.

The rock wall at the sides of the river getting high enough to block even that mountain from view.

Oh no... that doesn't look good. No way to get through to that little lake with that in the way.

Passage to the lake is in fact blocked by two barriers of rock, even that shallow water before the rock looks challenging.

Bill suggests that they could blast their way through.

"But we've got no explosives on board Bill".

"Cannons?"

"Nope... no cannons".

"Lasers!".

"Bill... this is a cruiser boat, the most explosive thing we got onboard is that prune juice you've been distilling as "reserve fuel" since we gave up on the ISRU gear".

With no way through and no place to drop the rover off to get to the mountain, Jeb swung the boat around and headed downstream.

At the back of the boat, Bob checks with Jeb on the intercom that he's still going to drop off the rover and that he didn't hand over half his candy supply for nothing.

Jeb told him not to worry, he just needs to find a good spot to moor the boat. With 109 unit of fuel left the Coastal Cruiser finally came to a halt, ready to let loose "The Bob".

[purpleivan]

Double Header... or, two are better than one.

With the boat securely moored, Bill and Bob headed off in the rover in search of mountains... ok. they headed straight for the one they could clearly see in front of them.

It didn't take long to get up over 1km ASL, but the light is growing dim, so they made as much headway as possible before the inevitable.

This inevitable.

Nice amount of sunlight down there behind the guys but...

... right here they're in shadow, so they aren't going anywhere until morning.

As if by magic... it's morning.

Hello sun, nice to see ya.

The foothills were a lot steepeer than most Bob had encountered, so even down here a fair amount of zig zagging was required. Occasionally the speed got up a bit higher than expected, when slope suddenly dropped away, leading to so near rover smashing moments.

Almost done with the foothills, and into the mountains proper.

But then who'd have guessed, our old friend "Blocked by Terrain" comes calling.

A bit of warping later and the annoying visitor is sent packing.

The pair make good progress once back in the sunlight and make it up over 3km.

Those cliffs look pretty steep, probably best to avoid those.

That looks more like it, up to the dip in the ridge, then hang a left.

3.7km and they break out onto some fairly flat, snowy terrain. It also gives them the best view they've had of the river yet.

The gently snowy slopes are about to give way to something tougher and rockier... like rock. At least they're up of 4km now.

The terrain on the mountain is steep, but fortunately there are a lot of little shallow slopes dotted around as recharge points. In places they're a little far apart though, forcing some creative routing and many "please make it to the top of this slope moments".

It looks like the route that Bob's chosen is just too steep to climb, so he takes the rover down a steep slope to drive around it.

Bob parks the rover on a shallow ledge before venturing down the slope towards their alternate climb route. However he spots some flattish spots in the slope they just descended, that might allow them to work across and up, so cutting out most of the alternate route's length.

But this shortcut is no picnic, the going is very steep, even if there are some ledges to recharge on... getting to those is the problem.

So out old acquaintances return... Mr Zig and Mr Zag.

Bill and Bob are still at the same altitude they were at before all the alternate routing, shortcutting etc. started. At least there is now something like a scalable route ahead though.

The really steep stuff is over for the timebeing and they trundle over gentle snowy slopes on their way towards the summit.

Ah nice... a snowy route across the rock to follow.

That route's taken them up over 5km. Bill and Bob dig into one of the snack lockers for a celebratory bag of chocolate covered pretzels.

They need that sugary boost over the next few minutes as they climb up what looked like an impossible slope. Bob had planned to drive round it, but egged on by Bill he gave it a go.

But then there's even steeper climbing to be done, thankfully though there is a slope just shallow enough to park on and recharge. Now it's time to head for that ledge over on the left to stop for juice, then head for the summit.

Finally they make it to the top and grab a quick snap of the rover at the summi...

... hang on, it looks higher over there, lets go take a look.

It is indeed high, although not as easy to read, but the KER readout for apoapsis is 5947m. Almost as high as the record holder (6119m) and a challenging climb.

Bill hops out to get a nic photo of the rover before the pair head down towards the boat.

Looks like some trees are hiding behind that ridge.

Indeed they were... many, many trees, coating the ground all the way (well almost) to the boat.

Having made it through the dense forest and the inexplicable barren area beyond, Bill and Bob made it back to the Coastal Cruiser just in time for lunch.

[purpleivan]

The only way is North... or, it's all in the plan.

This leg began as they all had, since the Coastal Cruiser got close to the Antarctic, with a fuel drop from polar orbit. There's only one more left on the platform, but they'll be switching to fuel from equatorial orbit after this leg.

In it raced, tearing through the atmosphere on target for the boat, not a care in the world...

... ah, that was a surprise.

But all was ok, as it was only the deorbit package that went up in smoke. The rest of the SMIRF rode in safely behind its heatshield.

The descent path of the fuel store was close to the shore of the headland to the North of the river the Coastal Cruiser was moored in. Let's just hope it lands in the wet stuff.

It does... just about.

The SMIRF is 33km away and with only 109 units of fuel, Jeb's not certain they can make it.

They head downstream towards the river mouth and Bill pops out of the cockpit hatch to take one last photo of the peak they scaled earlier.

They reached the SMIRF with about 40 units of fuel remaining, so a reasonably comfortable margin. Now to head North again.

They soon encounter this formation, which Bob decideds to name "Barbed Wire Bays", as it's not very substantial, but it's great at keeping you from where you want to go.

After rounding the Barbed Wire Bays, the sun sinks into the western horizon and the darkens rapidly.

Time to put in then, which Jeb does quicky with about 90% of the fuel remaining.

It's their earliest departure at sunrise the next day. After two mountain climbs in a single leg, it's time to get moving towards the equator.

So... didn't get too far did they, that's yesterday's mountain in the distance. Rounding Barbed Wire Bays certainly chewed up a bit of mileage.

Finally the boat was moving at a rapid pace to wards the equator again, or to the North East at least.

Bob's eye is attracted by these two lumps in the terrain and decides to call it "The Camels".

Heading along the coast they encounter few islands to skirt around... this one.

Then these.

Yet again the sun is calling time on the voyage for today.

Still about 1/4 of the fuel left, so still some useful distance to be covered tomorrow. Val looks at the shadow of the boat on the shore and decides to tell everyone that she can do magic, and is currently levitating the boat.

Bob believes this.

It's another early start for the crew, they'll have to take breakfast on the go.

Gotta watch out for those sneaky sand bars creaping up on you. They could spoil your whole day.

The sun climbs into the sky. It's a lovely sunny morning and there's still over 300 units of fuel left and they continue cruising on to the North East.

Except... er, Jeb.

"Yep".

Aren't you going South, you know... the wrong way?

"Ah, don't worry about it".

Finally after rounding a large bay, the boat is once more heading North, or "upsies" as Bob likes to call it.

Once more they're heading towards the equator.

But that fuel isn't going to last forever (oh I wish... ahem) and they pull over at an island in the middle of another large bay, and wait for the next fuel drop.

Edited May 4, 2019 by purpleivan

[NBDesigns]

You could send down a compact glider for the guys to take up to their new mountain top and have jeb fly off the top of the mountain and see how far he goes

[purpleivan]

3 hours ago, NBDesigns said:

You could send down a compact glider for the guys to take up to their new mountain top and have jeb fly off the top of the mountain and see how far he goes

Occasionally I've thought about sending out various things to the crew to have fun with along their trip. I even seriously thought about dropping a Mun capable landing capable rocket to the Anarctic, then having Jeb fly to the Mun and back. I'd have landed him back on the ice and had Bob pick him up in the rover and bring him back to the boat.

Then I thought, this trip is long enough as it is, adding a Mun trip is probably not the way to go.

[purpleivan]

Terror in the Night... or, darkness descends.

Things started with another orbital fuel drop, courtesy of the equatorial SMIRF platform.

Once the boat made it over to its landing site, the patient fuel store lay in wait... silently... patiently... to hand over a glug of juice.

With the SMIRF docked, Bob decided to go aboard and check it out. He was especially please to find an emergency supply of mixed sour candy in the rear compartment.

In his rush to get back to the boat and chuck them down his gullet... I mean tell everyone else about his find, he ran into the solar panels.

With Bob, and the fresh candy supply onboard, the crew headed off.

Bill tries one of the red and yellow sour balls... it bit more sour than he was expecting.

As sunset fell, Jeb brought the boat into shore for the night. That evening the new new candy supply made an excellect addition to things available as currency in the weekly card game.

The following morning Bill is trying to finish that sour ball, but at least he's got used to the taste.

The Coastal Cruiser had been making its way up the West coast of this peninsular. The going has been rough North all the way along it. But at the top of it, they'll be heading the wrong way (i.e. South) once again.

But before then something important must be done... The ceremony of the Equatorial Traveller. This takes place when a crew crosses the equator going North for the second time. It's possible that this ceremony was invented by a bored member of the crew, to liven up things, or it's a long held tradition of Kerbin's ocean mariners... take ya pick.

According to Val the victim... er, I mean... honoured supplicant, has to placate the deep sea kraken, by carrying out a it's bidding on the deck of the boat.

The ceremony starts with the important "buttering up of the Kraken" in which they have to lick up a line of peanut butter from the deck, from one end to the other. Fortunately Bill is quite partial to the nutty goodness in a jar, so thinks this will be easily done. After 10 minutes he's barely off the rover platform and has lost his appetite for all nut based food products.

After the "buttering up" has been done, the 2nd part of the ceremony is the "Cold of the Kraken" in which the supplicant has to be snubbed by the rest of the crew for a period of time known only to the Kraken. Basically until they get bore of doing it.

Val seems happy that she suggested the supplicant should be the kerbal with the name that comes first alphabetically and not last, as Jeb was thinking.

After half an hour of the cold shoulder experience, Bob checks his watch... it's been half and hour.

After a few more minutes the Kraken let it be known (i.e. it was 5 past boredom) that the ceremony was over and it they were deemed worth of venturing once again into Northern waters.

The struck out to the North once more, but soon rouned the headland at the top of the image below, then had to head South for more time than they liked.

All the way down into that bay at the bottom, then once the back of it was in sight, change direction back to the North.

As the sun was about to hit the horizon, the crew noticed something strange about the sky, as if it should be lighter than it actually was.

Unknown to them this was the culprit. They were nowhere near the center of it, but its effect was quite noticeable.

The sky turned an uncomfortable shade of orangey grey, with the mountains in the distance appearing to glow.

Concerned that the Kraken might have been angered that they didn't give Bill the cold shoulder long enough, they feared the worst. The worst being that the dark patch in the sky was the Kraken's shadow as it came to devour them.

They quickly moored the boat at a nearby beach and prepared a small feast, just in case a hungry Kraken happened by.

No-one on the boat slept well that night.

Having made it through to morning the crew headed out to sea once more.

After a short time they came across an interesting looking mountain.

So Bob, you have a name in mind for this.

"Hmmm... The Kraken's Molar"

So are you planning on taking the rover up it.

"Drive up the Kraken's Molar, then sit on top of it waiting... er, that would be a no".

Still 1/4 of the fuel to go, what adventures lie wait for the crew and the Coastal Cruiser with all that fuel left to burn.

Not much... so straight to the end shot of the boat parked up on beach.

Edited May 6, 2019 by purpleivan

[KerballingSmasher]

Just a continent and a half to go! You're doing great!

[NBDesigns]

That was super scary, I think I’d crap my pants in real life if I were on a boat. 

Squad should really add live kraken in the water and super kraken during solar eclipse at dusk. 

[purpleivan]

Inchworm... or, crawling all the way to the bank.

This adventures is brought to you by SMIRF... The fuel delivery you can trust.

Ok... this doesn't look good, but SMIRF has never failed the crew before, always avoided the land , always fallen in the water...

... always keep my big mouth shut.

So, what now.

The landing was the most accurate yet at 2.7km from the Coastal Cruiser, but the fuel is standed on the beach. Nothing for it but to abandon this one and drop another from orbit on the next pass I guess.

But hang on, that velocity readout isn't showing zero, it's 0.1m/, so all might not be lost. Just depends how long I can stand to wait for it to slide (very) slowly towards the sea. Dropping another from orbit might actually be quicker, but I'll give this a go.

It took over 5 minutes using x2 warp (higher than that and it started to dangerously hop about) but...

... it finally made it, by inching along along until it finally made it to where it was supposed to be,

At sun up the crew took off for the location of the SMIRF and its load of fuel. The attempt to avoid the land it had come down on had used up almost all of the propellant onboard, leaving about 1/2 second of full thrust to get it to grab the boat.

Fortunately it worked first time.

With full tanks once more, the boat headed North and quickly came across this.

Well it would be rude not to take a look upstream, so they headed inland.

Just assume that various amusing comments were made about never getting off things, not surfing and getting some.

The trip was shorter than expected, as yet again the river was blocked by mounds of grass in it.

Why Squad whyyyyyyyy... obviously secret haters of rivers.

Although the boat could go no further, Val decided to take a run over to the far side of the grass mound, to take a look further upstream.

It was quit a hike at 3/5km (should have taken the rover really) but finally Val made it to the far side.

I agree Val... whyyyyyyy.

Bob thinks that this river is in serious need of dredging.

Once Val had made it back to the boat, they sped off downstream.

After a few minutes the ocean came in to sight. At the mouth of the river Jeb hung a right and headed North along the coast once more.

Looking at the map Bob found this feature that they were passing by.

He suggests "King Tut, tut, tut peninsula" as a name (he'd been given a had time by Val for not washing the dishes properly after breakfast.

Down to the half tanks mark and the boat is making solid progress to the North.

As the sun hits the Western horizon, Jeb brings the boat in at a nice looking beach. Still got 577 units of fuel in the tanks, so plenty more distance to cover tomorrow.

it's an early start the following day, a little too early for Bill, who just stares at the ceiling of the rover cab, wishing he was still in bed.

A bit below a quarter of a tank left and they've made it to 20 degrees North of the equator.

Ooo...22 degrees North, but hang on... what's this, a turn to the South... again!

Fortunately this one isn't as large as the last diversion from North they took. After travelling to a latitude a couple of degrees further South, the shore of a large bay comes into view and Jeb turns back to the North once more.

By the time the fuel was low enough to moor up and wait for resupply, they were back up to 23 degrees North.

Now to wait for another SMIRF... hopefully that one doesn't end going for a walk instead of a swim.

Edited May 8, 2019 by purpleivan